As the government shutdown arrived, House Speaker John Boehner appointed eight members of a conference committee to work out a short-term spending bill with the Senate. Among them is Rep. Tom Graves, the Republican from Ranger who has led the “defund Obamacare” fight.

Boehner’s move is a sign that the conference would not betray the caucus’ right flank and a nod to the Georgia congressman’s  continued influence.

But it’s unlikely this homage to “I’m Just a Bill” is going to happen.

House Republicans figure Senate Democrats had rejected every offer without a discussion, so maybe it was time to start one. But Senate Democrats laughed this off, as Republicans previously have refused to go to conference over the budget this year. They see no reason for drawn out discussions over a short-term funding measure – particularly when they refuse to consider changes to Obamacare, which remains a House Republican demand.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set up a vote this morning to cast aside the conference request, just like the other offers House Republicans have made.

***

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson went to bed around 2 a.m. as the federal government shutdown was just beginning.  About 6:30 a.m. he got the first of a handful of cellphone calls from back home. The message: “Stay the course. Don’t give in. Don’t end the shutdown.”

The Georgia senator would not say whether he would accept a short-term spending bill without conditions, saying that it’s up to the House and he wishes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would accept the conference committee mentioned above to hammer things out. But Isakson hopes that, as the far more disruptive debt ceiling deadline gets closer, the discussion can turn more toward the country’s long-term problems and “structural entitlement reforms instead of health care.”

Though at first, Isakson said, most people will only notice the shuttered national parks. "But then the pressures will rise because of government services being disrupted, government programs, things that involve people’s everyday life,” the senator said.

And given Reid’s ability to hold his caucus together, Isakson said the GOP is in a pickle. “They appear to be united and they’ve got the votes,” he said. “It makes it hard to negotiate.”

***

The first major, post-shutdown poll indicates that, at least in the blush of first impressions, Republicans have stepped in it. From the press release:

American voters oppose 72 - 22 percent Congress shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

Voters also oppose 64 - 27 percent blocking an increase in the nation's debt ceiling as a way to stop Obamacare, the independent Quinnipiac University poll finds.

American voters are divided on Obamacare, with 45 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed, but they are opposed 58 - 34 percent to Congress cutting off funding for the health care law to stop its implementation.

Republicans support the federal government shutdown by a narrow 49 - 44 percent margin, but opposition is 90 - 6 percent among Democrats and 74 - 19 percent among independent voters.

President Barack Obama gets a negative 45 - 49 percent overall job approval rating, compared to his 46 - 48 percent score August 2.

American voters disapprove 74 - 17 percent of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, their lowest score ever, and disapprove 60 - 32 percent of the job Democrats are doing.

"Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by Congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it's worth closing down the government to stop it," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

***

On the bright side for the GOP, here’s a word from another polling organization on the long-term impact of the last major shutdown, in 1995-96:

[H]istorical Gallup data reveal that the repercussions of that past conflict ranged from none to short-lived, in terms of Americans' concerns about the U.S. and the political players involved. The 1995/1996 closure, which occurred when -- just like today -- Republican leaders in Congress and a Democratic president failed to agree on the budget, did little to impact Americans' views of President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Congress itself, the U.S. economy, and the country in general in the months after the shutdown began.

***

“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” apparently has won an oppo research contract from someone in Georgia’s Republican race for U.S. Senate. Three minutes into last night’s Comedy Central broadcast, Stewart focused on Republicans who keep pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution on their persons at all times.

Up came a July 24 clip of U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey during a House floor speech. “Just look at your Constitution – which I keep in my pocket,” he said – reaching into both sides of his jacket, and not finding anything. “Somewhere deep in my pocket. But I’ll guarantee you it’s in here,” he adds.

***

The Georgia Republican party apparently has a strategy for weathering the blame game over a federal shutdown – or the decision at the state Capitol to do everything possible to thwart Obamacare.  It’s the two-minute YouTube video lodged above, titled “Choose Freedom” and produced by the Stoneridge Group:

The party says it's part of the roll out of a new website, but the timing sure is convenient. Note the appropriation of many local symbols: The University of Georgia Bulldogs (though apparently the party has declined to claim the Georgia Tech Yellow jackets), Coke over Pepsi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

 ***

Southern Republicans who view the federal shutdown as a victory for state sovereignty will have to find someplace new to celebrate. The ferries to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor are part of the National Park Service, and so are not running.

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More information will cost you a subscription, but here’s the lead story on the front page of the AJC this morning, from my colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin:

The state ethics commission on Monday called for an independent investigation in response to a pair of lawsuits pending against the commission as well as its deepening personnel problems.

The commission wants Attorney General Sam Olens to appoint a special outside attorney to lead the investigation. Olens’ spokeswoman said he has yet to receive a formal request for outside counsel and could not comment. Several of Olens’ top lawyers participated in Monday’s meeting.

Here’s a question for Olens: If an independent investigator is hired, is he/she restricted to the topics cited by the state ethics commission? If a pulled thread leads elsewhere, can it be followed?

***

Many an eyebrow was arched after records showed that the lucrative salvage yard that Gov. Nathan Deal unloaded to Texas-based car auction firm Copart is battling the state over nearly $74 million in disputed back taxes.

And regulatory filings submitted by Copart late Monday show that the behind-the-scenes legal fight between the company and the state Department of Revenue rages on.

Copart agreed this summer to pay $3.2 million each to Deal and his business partner Ken Cronan for Gainesville Salvage & Disposal, the firm that is at the center of steady income - and controversy - for the governor.

Deal and Cronan once had an agreement with the state to provide space for state employees to inspect rebuilt salvaged cars, and the AJC reported in 2009 that Deal intervened with state officials who wanted to open the program to more locations.

Copart's latest filing shows the firm is still battling the state revenue department over whether parts sales to international resellers are subject to Georgia sales tax. It said the company still retains a law firm and outside tax advisers who believe Copart has "strong defenses" to mount against the state. The company conceded that it may not win:

"There can be no assurance, however, that this matter will be resolved in the Company’s favor or that the Company will not ultimately be required to make a substantial payment to the Georgia DOR. The Company understands that Georgia law and DOR regulations are ambiguous on many of the points at issue in the audit, and litigating and defending the matter in Georgia could be expensive and time-consuming and result in substantial management distraction."

Revenue officials have declined to comment. And Deal, for his part, has said he didn't have any knowledge of Copart’s tax woes because the property was run in a blind trust, which means the assets are controlled by a third party.

“They will get no preferential treatment," he said in an earlier interview, adding: “The governor’s office has no involvement with this. None at all.”

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The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today takes a look at a gun group’s claim that Gov. Nathan Deal was to blame for stalling a bill last spring that, among other things, would have allowed concealed weapons to be carried on Georgia’s public university campuses.

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A fess-up press release arrived this morning from the city of Atlanta, on that anti-crime program that the feds say has been mismanaged, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars:

A statement issued by the City of Atlanta on Monday, September 23 mistakenly stated that crime was down in all four neighborhoods targeted by the Weed & Seed program, specifically: Pittsburgh (-42%), Mechanicsville (-35%), English Avenue (-51%) and Vine City (-50%). This data was not vetted by the Atlanta Police Department’s Tactical Crime Analysis Unit prior to release. As a result, it contained incorrect data. The correct numbers, which the Atlanta Police Department subsequently double-checked and verified, demonstrate that crime is down significantly in three of the four communities, but up in one of those communities: (Pittsburgh (-37%), Mechanicsville (+35 percent), English Avenue (-45%), and Vine City (-44%). The city regrets the unintentional human error. It is worthy to note that major crimes are down for 2011 compared to 2007, collectively, in those four neighborhoods served by Weed & Seed by 21%, according to APD’s numbers.

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What’s being called a “grim” prognosis in the religious world, from the New York Times:

The first major survey of American Jews in more than 10 years finds a significant rise in those who are not religious, marry outside the faith and are not raising their children Jewish — resulting in rapid assimilation that is sweeping through every branch of Judaism except the Orthodox.

The intermarriage rate, a bellwether statistic, has reached a high of 58 percent for all Jews, and 71 percent for non-Orthodox Jews — a huge change from before 1970 when only 17 percent of Jews married outside the faith. Two-thirds of Jews do not belong to a synagogue, one-fourth do not believe in God and one-third had a Christmas tree in their home last year.